Better with Pets Summit

Life is better with pets!

Whether you’ve been following Powered by Mom for a short time or a long time you no doubt know that my family and I and even all of my writers and reviewers on the Powered by Mom team are HUGE animal lovers! My family and I love animals so much that we truly can’t imagine life without four legged family members being a part of our family. So naturally when I was invited to attend the Better with Pets Summit in New York the first week of November I didn’t even have to think twice I said yes!

First I’m going to share all the wonderful things I heard, saw and experienced at the summit and soon in the next week or so I’m going to share in another post about one thing that really struck a chord with me at the summit! Make sure to check back for that one you’ll love it and might even have some happy tears!

Meet Tuna the dog, he along with every other four legged attendee I met at the Better with Pets Summit was an absolute cutie! He was such a sweet and Tuna is a bit of a celebrity as he has like 1.6 million followers on Instagram and no wonder he’s just adorable, you can’t help but love him! Naturally I had to have a picture with Tuna, he always looks so worried but if you meet him you know he’s a relaxed kind of boy. He also has the most adorable smile, his overbite is just endearing, if you’re not already following him check out his Instagram HERE

Now this was my first time attending the Better with Pets summit but apparently this is the third annual summit and this one focused on the emotional wellness of pets and the people who love them. How do pets help us be well? How do we help them in return? There were several amazing panel sessions with speakers of various backgrounds and while I’m not usually one to sit and listen to people talk I have to admit they all captured my attention.

To be at a conference center packed full of people who are all about the wellness of pets, recognizing their emotional value to us humans and more was an amazing experience for me. I’ve never been a room filled with so many people who were passionate about pets, from those who rescue pets, those who foster, veterinarians, people who write about pets (like myself) and those who’ve started some amazing programs. I could seriously go on and on and on. I could write a book but I won’t, it was was just heart warming to see that there truly are so many people and companies who care.

Now normally I’m not one who can sit and listen to a panel of speakers and yet I found my attention captured by every single panel. I learned things like the fact that:

Millennials are changing the relationship between pet owners and cats. Purina revealed results at the summit from a recent survey that showed that nearly half of the 1,000 millennials surveyed own a cat and that 88 percent of cat owners consider themselves similar to their pets.1

I met this cutie in the cat room at the better with pets summit. Yes a room full of cats of all ages, colors and more, now that was fun!

The second panel provided an in-depth look at pets’ environments and the impact it may have on their stress levels, and the third panel focused on the benefits of raising pets and kids together and how it brings unique benefits that extend beyond a typical human-animal bond.

I’m a big believer in how pets and kids can be invaluable to each other and have personally raised my daughter with both cats and dogs in our home since before she was born, When my daughter was born we had two dogs and two cats, she’s never known a life without cats or dogs in the home and she’s a kind, sweet girl who no surprise loves animals. As you can imagine these panels spoke to me and my love of animals, why we as humans if we treat animals right we can and do benefit so much for having animals in our lives.

I was so engaged with what was being said during the panels that I was right up front eagerly listening. You can see the back of my head in the picture below. See right up front!

The panel above the women all have something to do with pets from being a veterinarian who specializes in pet behavior to the woman who works with abused children and adults and her dog is her partner in work to the photographer who captures special moments of her son and his Newfoundland dogs. There was no shortage of passion for animals and their well being at this summit. It was incredible to see the work that people are doing all over the country!

I also got to hang out with some pretty fabulous dogs, well aren’t they all fabulous? Here’s Jesse what a handsome fellow!

Here’s a bit about the panelists:

The ten panelists included Heather Lewis, an animal arts architect who is paving the way for pet wellness through pet-centric design and architecture; Jayne Vitale, a child development expert and director of the Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum, a social and emotional learning (SEL) program designed to teach empathy as a skill to adolescents; Christina Ha, the founder of Meow Parlour, the first permanent cat cafe in New York City; and Dr. Tony Buffington, a cat stress expert who has spent the majority of his career examining stress in pets and the impact it can have on health.

There was a big play area in the middle of the room to hang out and play with the dogs!

There was also five educational zones which features exhibits where we the attendees could engage, see what Purina’s vast expertise in the pet wellness space and we got to connect with the Purina experts too. I have to admit though my favorite parts were hanging out with the dogs in the center space throwing toys for them and then heading to the cat room to hang with well the cats, so many cats I was in my element there. It’s amazing how just being around cats and dogs can put you at ease, make you feel better and feel like you’re at home.

Of course the best part of the summit besides knowing there are so many amazing people out there who work towards the wellness of pets and people together but the best part is well the animals. Here are just a few of the ones I got to meet!

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Now I just have to say kudos to Purina as I didn’t realize how much resources, time and the dedication that they have towards pets, wanting them to be healthy and happy. I’m honored that I was able to attend and meet so many passionate animal lovers and advocates all in one place at the same time!

Now while Purina did cover the costs of my travel this is no way affects my opinions in this post. All thoughts expressed here as always are 100% my own.

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About Powered by Mom

I’m Michelle aka Powered by Mom. I’m married with one daughter, my hubby was my high school sweetheart, our two dogs Luna and Little Zeus and our cat Oliver. As you can see we’re a family of animal lovers. We love to travel when we can, try different food and activities all over the world and enjoy being together. My passions are writing, travelling, creating new recipes, encouraging people to adopt not shop and just to enjoy life while we can.

I can’t imagine my life w/out my four legged hairy children. My ex & I broke up after 24 years and he kept my 2 cats from me for 6 months & I literally had a nervous breakdown. Him leaving me and then not allowing me to see my own cats was a nightmare. I have them back now but they have never been the same. I wish a pet summit would come to Montgomery, Alabama. It sounds like you truly found out a lot of fantastic info and it was a good time too. I am jealous.

I love my pets , and if I was able to take them every where with me I would, but sometimes they just want to be left alone and sometimes they want to play and give hugs 🙂 love my ti and flower
@tisonlyme143

Better with Pets sounds so fun. I do TNR and ,and manaage a colony and ardon my typing but I have a cat oon my arm she is not feeling well and I aam not moving her 🙂 I would love to go to one of these but aalas not a blogger so no oinvites.

What a fun time!! Such interesting topics! Who would’ve thought to read to your animal?!!? Or that they end up like us?!!? So nuts!! Im pretty jealous you got to experience it as it seems like it was fabulous!

I would love attending something like this. We have three wonderful dogs and several rescue birds. My rescue bird is a male Eclectus Parrot who is the most loving bird after the home he was in abused him very badly. I can’t tell you how much love this parrot and all my other rescue birds have brought us.

LOL! Tuna is such a funny name for a dog! But yes, life can be so much more enriched with a pet – not just for kids, but for all members of the family. They even have special therapy dogs that are brought into a hospital or nursing home, to visit the old or elderly. Pets have a proven good effect not only on your emotional health, but your physical health, as well.